Pages tagged "Topic districts and representation"

For all but a few of these voters, the outcomes of U.S. House races are all-but predetermined. FairVote projects that the Democrats are certain win 158 seats, and Republicans 195, the remaining 82 races are less certain, but only a handful are truly competitive. Our full forecast is 192 seats for the Democrats, 243 seats for the Republicans.

Tonight, we can say with confidence that Republicans will maintain their majority in the House of Representatives, whether they win more votes or not. In addition, there will likely be multiple states in which more voters vote for one party, yet the other party wins more seats.

FairVote’s model of U.S. House of Representatives elections shows that House elections are so uncompetitive and skewed that it is unlikely that even a Clinton landslide would deliver Democrats the House.

The act of selecting leaders is vital to a democracy. However, in 34 Congressional districts in 2016, voters won’t be making a choice. These 34 districts are held by incumbents who faced no opposition in their party’s primary and no major party competition in the general election.

Last year was the 50th Anniversary of the March on Selma and the passage of the seminal Voting Rights Act of 1965, which changed the course of minority voting power in American politics, and just last week celebrated its 51st Anniversary. To honor that legacy, the Cumberland Law Review at the Stamford School of Law in Birmingham, Alabama dedicated an issue of its most recent volume to the history, impact, and future of the VRA, to which FairVote contributed an article about adopting ranked choice voting in multi-winner districts for Congress.

In addition to forcing different groups of voters to compete for the scarce representation they are afforded by this system, the way we elect Congress is also plagued by issues such as plurality winners, turnout gaps, vote-splitting, single-party dominance, and incumbency advantages. All of these were on display in the District 13 primary, and all of these contribute to making Congress so dysfunctional.

Three states have introduced laws that demonstrate the need for reform, and the potency of state legislation to help move this conversation forward. Democratic state legislators in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia each introduced companion bills to reform redistricting for their congressional elections.

Across the nation, Americans are frustrated with divisive politics and elections in which they feel as though their voice goes unheard. However, states are laboratories of democracy, and we now have an exciting new approach to reform--one that promises to kick-start a conversation about how to fix congressional elections and initiate change in the states.

If we want politics to reflect our better selves, Illinois leaders need to stop playing politics with district lines and give voters the freedom to choose candidates that best represent their voice no matter where they live.